I was checking the news wire this morning and saw quite a few articles of interest that I thought that I would share with you:

• Two national records were broken yesterday at the USATF National Junior Olympic Track & Field Championships, both in the 4×800. The (15-16 year old) intermediate boy’s time was brought down to 7:41.30 by the Texas Stars, and the United Stars set the (17-18 year old) young women’s record at 8:50.72. (Source: USATF)
• The Tour de France is struggling to maintain its integrity after a lot of controversy over the past few days. No rider rode today in the leader’s jersey after the Tour leader was pulled by his team because he lied about his whereabouts during drug testing before the race. Two teams have pulled out following a rider testing positive in the doping tests. The Tour is not being canceled, despite protests from local French newspapers. I hope that the Tour is not canceled; just throw the cheaters out and let those who are remaining keep going. (Source: BBC Sport)
• The Walt Disney company is taking the plunge and removing cigarettes from their children’s movies completely. They are also going to discourage smoking in movies that they produce that is aimed at adults. While I do not see this as a bad thing, I also don’t see it as something that I think will make a huge difference. I think that these types of knee jerk reactions are a generally ineffectual, much like Homeland Security’s attempts to stop movie-plot terrorism attacks. (Source: BBC News)
• The New England Journal of Medicine has published a study that states that there may be a contagious element to obesity. Having friends that are obese may make it more likely that you in turn will become obese as the norms of what makes an acceptable body weight are adjusted. The study is not conclusive, and I am not so sure that I buy into their theories. I think that if you have friends that do not exercise, then you are less likely to exercise yourself, which can lead to weight gain. It is an interesting theory, though. (Source: New England Journal of Medicine)